Category Archives: Faith and Spirituality

Faith and Spirituality, Humanities, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant.

Caesura

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Imbolc                                                                     Hare Moon

 

25 years ago I left the workaday world for home based efforts, but the weekend still has a different, more relaxed feeling.  As if things just aren’t quite as urgent.  This is thanks to the union movements press for the 40 week combined with early Protestant and Catholic Christianity that tried to reserve Sunday for church.

In a more secular time Sunday has become, for many, a true day of rest with Saturday providing time for the domestic tasks not accomplished during the week.

The notion of a day of rest, a time to pause and consider the week behind and the one ahead, can seem like a luxury, perhaps even irresponsible.  The cell phone, e-mail, broadband, and television are available around the clock.  In hypercompetitive work settings there is the awful sense that someone might be catching up or that you’ve not done enough. Why not fill up this blank day with that extra effort, the push that might get you ahead.

In music there are rests, the caesura that lets a particular line or run of notes breathe, giving them definition.  In winter whole species of animals hibernate and thousands of individuals are doing so right now on this property where I write.  Holidays, spread throughout the year, are caesura, as are our vacations, our anniversaries and birthdays. In art, especially sculpture, we learn that negative space defines a work.  Without negative space that David would still be a block of granite.

Taoism, perhaps the clearest on this idea, points out that the usefulness of a cup is not its body, but the negative space it contains.  Windows. Doors. Rooms. Baskets. Silence.

The effort in our lives is like the cup, the window, the door, it is the body which contains the life, it is not the life itself.  Life itself is realized in the negative spaces among our focused efforts.  That’s where the laugh comes, or the gentle touch, or the smile, the encouraging word, the hug, the tear.

In my view it behooves us to grant ourselves as much negative space as we can and a day a week does not seem like too much.  It is probably too little.

 

Faith and Spirituality, GeekWorld, Great Work, Humanities, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant., Science, Sierra Club, US History, Weather +Climate, World History

Kairos

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Imbolc                                                      Hare Moon

A bit more on an old topic, inspired by thinking about Jenkinson’s remarks that appear below.

The humanities are important as just that, the human forming portion of our educational deposit.  Over the millennia, stretching back to the time of gods emerging from the deserts of the Middle East and continuing right through the poetry and literature and painting and sculpture, the movies and television and games, the sports and horticulture and domestic arts of our day, we have had to grow into our lives, into our identity as human beings. It is not easy, but it is the most important task we have and the one which the family, the schools, our societies and cultures exist to engage.

This is not an argument for the humanities over science, technology and mathematics.  Far from it.  We have needed and will continue to need the valuable insights that come from deep thinking about the atomic structure of things, the hard rock science of the earth, the softer touches of the biological inquiries and the neuroscientific and all the other forms of scientific endeavor with which we humans engage.  But consider the difference in importance between raising a boy or a girl and lifting a rocket ship to the moon.  Which matters more?

It is not in the theory of evolution or in the biological sciences or in matters astronomical that we find the answer to such a question.  Even though we often pretend it is in this insecure age the answer is not in the psychological studies.  No, the answer to a question of value, of significance, of which is more than this lies only in the realm of culture.

The most important task of our time is said simply and defined humanistically, but requires the sciences in all their potency to finish:  create a sustainable human presence on this earth.

Why is this most important?  Because if it is not accomplished, the earth, no matter our scientific prowess, will scour us from her face.  She will make the thin layer of our habitation, from maybe 6 inches below the surface of the soil, to maybe 12 miles or so above the earth-the troposphere where most weather occurs-outside the parameters necessary for our existence.  That is, as the biologists are found of saying, an extinction level event.

So we are at a moment of kairos, a greek word meaning the opportune time.  Paul Tillich a theologian of the last century saw kairotic moments as “…crises in history which create an opportunity for, and indeed demand, an existential decision by the human subject.” Wiki His clearest example from the mid-point of that bloody hundred years was World War II, but even WW II and WW I put together do not equal the crisis we face now, a kairotic moment which, as Tillich said, demands an existential decision by us all.

(damaged relief of the Greek god Kairos of 4 century. BC)

The will and the skill to make that decision, a decision for or against our children and our grandchildren’s future, lies not in the sciences, but in the humanities.  It is in our sense of who we are as a species, as a being with a history, that we will find what we need to decide.  And, contrary to many, I am now convinced that the biggest barriers confounding our ability to make a non-suicidal decision lie in the realm of governance, a thoroughly humanistic endeavor.

Strip away those disciplines that force us to consider our humanity and we will be left with the calculus of Malthus.

 

 

 

Faith and Spirituality, Family, Feelings, Humanities, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant., Retirement, Third Phase, Travel

Coming Up in March

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Imbolc                                                                      Hare Moon

Looking down the month toward our 24th anniversary (Monday) and the date I’m wheels 1000Kate and Charlie in Edenon the road for Tucson (the 18th).  24 years with Kate and our relationship improves like fine wine, gaining more nuance and depth, more body with each passing year.  This year we return to the Nicollet Island Inn for dinner, the spot from which we launched our honeymoon.  As spring rolled forward in March of 1990 those three weeks in Europe were as good a beginning as the marriage itself. Next year we’ll celebrate our 25th anniversary at Mama’s Fish House on Maui.

The Tucson trip grows closer.  These rolling retreats, as I like to think of alone time behind the wheel, are really just road trips.  Road trips are part of the American way, peregrinatio updated for the age of the internal combustion engine.

This one of course has its focus self discovery, focus, personal deepening so it will have a more spiritual note, but it will also include my usual visits to spots of natural and historic interest.  Among the possibilities are Carlsbad Caverns, the Saguaro forests, a state park or two in Arizona, the Sonoran Desert Museum, Mt. Kitt, Chaco Canyon, Joshua Tree National Park (probably not, but it’s within reach) and a second visit to the Arbor Day lodge and farm in Nebraska City, Nebraska.

Faith and Spirituality, Humanities, Latin, Myth and Story, Translating Metamorphoses

Chaff

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Imbolc                                                              Valentine Moon

Greg had to shift our work tomorrow to next Friday.  This morning I plowed through 7 verses in 40 minutes.  That’s getting closer to the pace I want.  13-16 a day.  In fact, with that pace, two sessions the same day would get me there.

This is all chaff.  I know that.  Who cares whether an amateur succeeds in making what will probably be a poor translation of the Metamorphoses? Nobody. I care. And that’s what matters to me, but I’m not ignorant of the global insignificance of this work.

Same with the novel.  Suppose it sells, does well.  More chaff.  If it doesn’t.  Chaff. Working on climate change.  Closer to wheat, less chaff.  Still, my single contribution?  Mostly chaff.

Why keep at any of this?  Because it is what I’ve chosen to define my ancientrail.  I don’t believe any of us have another path open to us.  It’s either choose or have it chosen for you.

(Eleusinian mysteries)

Faith and Spirituality, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant., Third Phase

ruthless honesty, a modest bravery and unrelenting persistence

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Imbolc                                                                            Valentine Moon

“Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.”    Rumi

This is life’s biggest challenge, paring away the expectations of parents, teachers and friends, paring away the influence of expectations garnered from others who seem successful.  Why is this life’s biggest challenge?  Because no matter how strong or how sensible expectations of you are, they mean nothing next to the unfolding seed that is your life. Your life.

You are unique, the only constellation of stardust ever created that has your particular biology and your personal history.  Even if you shape yourself in dutiful obedience to an outsiders expectations, even if when you do so, you find yourself successful according to some criteria or another, you will have robbed the earth and humankind because you will have hidden the gifts that only you have to offer.

We are so good at hiding our own, powerful self in the cloaks of profession, of achievement, of fame, of obedience, of dogma and ideology that we often hide it from ourselves.  Learning who you are and what you are is so easily enmeshed in the web your life weaves; whole schools of philosophy have been devoted to the inscription over the doorway to the Delphic oracle:  Know thyself.

Memento Mori mosaic from excavations in the convent of San Gregorio, Via Appia, Rome, Italy. The Greek motto gnōthi sauton (know thyself, nosce te ipsum) combines with the image to convey the famous warning: Respice post te; hominem te esse memento; memento mori. (Look behind; remember that you are mortal; remember death.)

There is no easy formula for taking on this task of paring away, of pruning the branches of your life so that only the strong, self-defining trunk and its branches remain.  It requires at least, a ruthless honesty, a modest bravery and unrelenting persistence.  The honesty is, I think, self-explanatory.  Acting on the learning that honesty brings requires bravery and the action of unfolding your own myth takes a lifetime.

But what a journey.

 

Faith and Spirituality, Great Work, MOOCS, Politics, US History

Merchants of Doubt

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Imbolc                                                            Valentine Moon

 

Spent yesterday doing the Climate Change course.  A fascinating series of lectures titled Merchants of Doubt.  Primary author of the book, Naomi Oreskes, is a historian of science at U. Cal. San Diego and a lecturer in this course.  This book and her lectures make a compelling and important case that climate change denial has its roots in the work of a small group of distinguished scientists, three initially:  Robert Jastrow, Frederick Seitz, and William Nierenberg.  All three were cold war physicists working on nuclear arms.  All three distinguished themselves.  Jastrow became head of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Seitz was president of the National Academy of Science and Rockefeller University, Nierenberg headed the Scripps Institute for almost two decades.

Read Great Wheel for the expanded story. The three of them worked on an advisory panel for Reagan’s Star Wars Defense Initiative.  When 6,500 scientists refused to take SDI money or work on it in any way by signing a petition stating their intentions, it caused great concern among these three cold war physicists.

The three created the George C. Marshall Institute to challenge the scientific consensus against Star Wars.  Seitz also worked for RJ Reynolds as a consultant.  In 1989 the cold war ended. The U.S. had won the cold war.  This deflated the rationale for the Institute; but, using the strategies developed by the tobacco industry, “doubt mongering”, the Institute went on to attack the science behind acid rain, ozone holes and eventually, global warming.

This methodology, honed in tobacco wars and practiced against acid rain and ozone (unsuccessfully, as it turned out), has been blisteringly effective against climate change science and its policy implications.  Why?  Read the rest of the story on Great Wheel later today or early tomorrow.

 

Dreams, Faith and Spirituality, Health, Humanities, Myth and Story, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant., Third Phase, Writing

Oh. Yeah. I Remember That.

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Imbolc                                                                    Valentine Moon

A few days back I wrote this post.  In it I admitted my yearning for the mystical, the mysterious, the contemplative; but, the metaphysical superstructure for them had been stripped away. (by me.  and for the most part happily so.)  Those impulses, partly stirred by the long, cold winter and its isolation, welcome, but draining at the same time, have been niggling away at me for some time.

(Progoff)

Then, I remembered.  I know how to get those elements back in my life.  The Ira Progoff Journal Workshops. I’ve done two of these, the three part series.  I’ve included some introductory material on them below.  Progoff was a Jungian analyst who worked over his career to develop a means of self-work rooted in Jungian method.  His efforts produced the Intensive Journal ,Process Meditation and these workshops.

Here’s what I like.  The work is yours, for you and reviewed by no one.  It’s a method, which I’ve used off and on, for many years.  As some of you know, I was in Jungian analysis, also off and on, for many years.  That means the worldview behind Progoff’s method reaches into deep work I’ve already done.

There are no guru’s here, no dogma, no path other than the ancientrail of self-wisdom. There’s no follow up, no encouraging you to do more.  Yet, there is a deep passion for the work individuals do on their own through Progoff’s methods.  It fits me and I’m glad I remembered it.

In fact, I’m headed off to Tucson, Arizona in late March for a six-day retreat to do all three workshops.  There will be, too, side trips to Carlsbad Caverns, Chaco Canyon and grandaughter Ruth just before her 8th–no longer required to ride in the car seat–birthday.  Ah.

 

Introduction to the Intensive Journal Program

Experience a life-changing process to give your life greater direction, vitality and purpose. Developed in 1966 by Dr. Ira Progoff, our nationally-recognized program has helped 175,000 people lead more fulfilling lives. Discover resources and possibilities you could not have imagined. The Intensive Journal method can be your honest friend in the creative process of shaping your life.

Article 1: The Intensive Journal Process: A Path to Self-Discovery
by Kathy Juline
Article 2: The Write to Fulfilling Life: An Interview with Ira Progoff
by The New Times
Article 3: The Way of the Journal

How can you benefit from this method?

  • By using an integrated system of writing exercises. It’s much more than a diary.
  • Gain insights about many different areas including personal relationships, career and special interests, body and health, dreams and imagery, and meaning in life.
  • Apply fresh approaches to access your creative capacities and untapped possibilities.
  • Work in total privacy. Neither you nor anyone else will judge or analyze your life.
  • Use a method that is without dogma. The Intensive Journal method is a process that can be used by people of all different backgrounds, interests and faiths.
  • Attend workshops at leading centers for reasonable prices.
  • You do not have to like to write or be a good writer. You are the only one who reads what you write.

Part I: Life Context (LC) Workshop: Gaining a Perspective on Life

Develop an inner perspective on the movement of your unfolding life process. Gain greater awareness of the continuity and direction of your life as it reveals what it is trying to become.

Generate insights about major areas of your life, including personal relationships, career and special interests, and body and health. The dialogue process provides a unique way to gain feedback and momentum as you deepen your understanding of these areas.

Part II: Depth Contact (DC) Workshop: Symbolic Images and Meaning in Life

Deepen your experience as you focus on the exercises in the second half of the Intensive Journal workbook. Learn how to use Progoff’s unique non-analytical method to draw forth messages from you inner symbolic experiences which can provide important leads in your unfolding life process.

Using Process Meditation™ techniques provides specific ways of developing your spiritual process in the context of your entire life. Explore experiences of connection that had significant meaning, gain insights about your ultimate concerns, and explore major themes in your life. Progoff’s advanced meditation techniques provide an avenue for greater reflection.

Part III: Life Integration (LI) Workshop/Journal Feedback™ Process: Integrating the Life Process

Progoff said the Journal Feedback process is the “essence of the Intensive Journal method and one of my main contributions.”

Experience the cumulative dynamic process created from working with material in one workbook section and how it can lead to entries in other related areas. This progressively deepening process generates an inner momentum and energy as you apply Progoff’s non-analytical Journal Feedback techniques. Your workbook becomes an active instrument as you approach situations from different perspectives.

New awareness and growth become possible as you realize connections between diverse areas. You are drawing your unfolding life process forward as you move toward greater wholeness and integration.

Faith and Spirituality, Great Work, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant.

Enough. Almost.

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Imbolc                                                                          Valentine Moon

Reimagining my faith, as I understand now, lies in the synthesis of the work here on the vegetable garden, the orchard, the flowers, the woods, the bees and the Great Work.  The work set out by Thomas Berry in his book of that name.  The great work for our generation is to create a sustainable path for human presence on the planet.  The carbon loading information alone makes this both true and necessary.

Placing my faith in the praxis of work at home and in the political world means it is incarnational and immanent in nature, key for me.  Incarnational means the sacred has no meaning apart from the corporal, the material world. Immanent means it is not about the transcendent, but about the here and now.

And that’s enough.  Almost.  There are though the mystical, the emotional aspects of the life of faith.  They were once deeply important for me.  And I miss them.  Liturgical music, contemplative prayer, the sense of mystery and profound depth.  Not transcendence, never a God or a power above, but the calm strength of the Ave Maria or a session of lectio divina or a quiet meditation sinking into the inner chapel.  The emotional resonance of these familiar, ancient practices still speak to my soul, but the metaphysical structure which validated them has crumbled and fallen away.

(Thomas Cole, Expulsion From the Garden)

Just noting this, not sure what to do with it, as I have not been for the last 20 some years. Perhaps a new path will open for me that includes these things.  Or, perhaps I will have to create one of my own.  Might be part of the task of reimagining faith.

 

Aging, Faith and Spirituality, Health, Retirement, Third Phase

Kick the Bucket List. Live As A Eudaimoniac.

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Imbolc                                                            Valentine Moon

Friend Tom Crane was talking about how the bucket list might be different.  “Imagine if your bucket list was things like looking in the eye and telling everyone you cared about that you loved them deeply and had for a long time.”

In my view you better have your bucket list imprinted in the daily way of things or it means little.  Why save up to the end things you can do today?

A bucket list is a close relative of the finish line model of retirement.  Wait until you no longer have work dragging you down, then do all the fun stuff.  Bucket list.  Wait until you know you’re going to die, then do all the fun stuff you didn’t have the courage to do before.

Tom’s idea is better.  Let’s consider those things that would make our life and the lives of those around us more rich, more peaceful, more fruitful.  Then, do them.

This, by the way, is the guiding notion of eudaimonia.  Here’s a repeat passage from a post last summer:

Composed of two Greek worlds, eu (good) and daimon (spirit) Aristotle and the Stoics after him promoted it as the end of human life. As such it has often been translated as happiness or welfare, but perhaps a better phrase is human flourishing.  Or, without getting fancy, why not good spirit?  Both have an active turn, taking us toward enrichment, fullness, striving within a humane ambit.

Now there you have an internal state worth cultivating.  It’s the difference between a noun and a gerund.

 

Faith and Spirituality, Holidays

The Time of Unfolding

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Winter                                                            Seed Catalog Moon

The holiseason has come and gone.  We’re now into what I call ordinary time, after the Catholic liturgical calendar.  We are though still in season and the season is winter.  No reason to doubt that in Minnesota this year.

We’re in the time of unfolding.  All the dreamy times, the hopeful moments, the gifts and resolutions of the holiseason must now become potent, active forces in our regular, our ordinary lives.

Whatever it was that caused your heart to leap, even just a little, in the holiday times, can now integrate itself into your ongoing.  Maybe you wanted to read more.  Unplug some times.  See the kids or the parents more.  Take time to play with your pets.  Go dancing.  Listen to more live music.  Meditate.  Now is the time for those things to take root, prepare for the quickening of Imbolc and the resurrection of Easter.

Be kind to yourself as you include new forces, new opportunities.  Sometimes the old ones won’t want to let go.  That’s ok.  Acknowledge them, say you won’t forget them, but their time is over for now.  Take the offered hand of the you you imagined not long ago, take that hand and let it lead you into this fresh year, all green with promise.